A video of a school teacher allegedly attempting to “shove” a Make America Great Again flag “down” a student’s shirt is gaining traction on Facebook, collecting more than 2,900 comments, 9,000 shares and 4,400 reactions.
The account that posted the video — “Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children” — states the video was filmed at Tabb High School in York County. The video was posted by the Facebook page on Saturday, stating the video was filmed during a school spirit week.
In the video, the student is shown wearing a “Trump 2020” flag reading “Make America Great Again.” A woman takes the flag and moves it over or around the student’s head while at least one student laughs in the background. Then teacher walks away.
It is not totally clear what the teacher did with the flag because her body partially blocks the view in the video.
On Monday, York County School Division confirmed the school is aware of the video being circulated “depicting an interaction between a para-educator and a student.”
According to a school division position description, para-educators assist the classroom teachers.
WYDaily was not able to confirm with the school division the name of the para-educator who was filmed.
School division spokeswoman Katherine Goff did not return voicemails left by WYDaily, although she responded to an email with a prepared statement that had been “provided to media outlets.”
Goff insists she did not receive voicemails left by WYDaily.
“We take this matter seriously, as we do all concerns brought to our attention,” Goff wrote in the statement.
Goff added that the York County School Division’s School Board Policy states school time and school property should not be used for political purposes.
Employees are also expected to abstain from engaging in any activity supporting or opposing any candidate or political party while on duty, on school property during school hours or while representing the division, Goff said.
“As such, we would like to assure our community that school and division administrators are continuing to review this personnel matter in accordance with division policies and procedures,” Goff said.
York County School Board Chairman James Richardson said the school division was notified of the incident last week, before the video was posted to social media.
Richardson did not know which specific day it occurred, but said it happened last week during spirit week activities. When they were alerted, administrators notified the parents of the students involved and began a school investigation.
Richardson did not know who told administrators about the incident, and declined to identify the staff member shown in the video because it’s a personnel matter and “we wouldn’t release anything to that effect anyway.”
Richardson also declined to say whether the “para-educator” has faced or would face any consequences.
Richardson said the staff member in the video “appears” to violate the school board policy on political matters, although the investigation will give an official determination.
Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children publishes political posts on Facebook daily.
